Dealing With the Devil
by Grevola
Summary: GW/HP X-over. Sorting Hat Arc, year 3. Hiiro realizes he's in need of a sneaky individual with flexible morals. Too bad nothing ever goes exactly as planed. Genfic, ongoing. Chapter 5/?
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Dealing With the Devil [1/?]  
**Author:** Grevola**  
Rating: **PG  
**Notes:** Don't own HP or GW. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc. Follows "Anything You Can Do". Hiiro realizes he's in need of a sneaky individual with flexible morals. Too bad Duo doesn't do anything for free. Also, Hiiro fails at English in this part, fair warning.

-_-_-_-

The first week back to Hogwarts was always the hardest for Hiiro. He spent his summers training intensely with Jei-sensei, trying to cram a full year of twenty-four seven study into about two months. If he could string together a sentence of comprehensible English in the first two weeks of his return from Japan, he felt reasonably accomplished. But the first week of third year was going worse than usual. First there had been the disappointment in Transfiguration. And now, he had finally gotten a response from Jei-sensei to his request to drop Divination.

"What's that?" Meiran Long leaned over and snatched the note out of his hand.

"Give it-" he started to say, but she was already laughing too hard to pay him any attention.

Wufei Chang, a student in their same year and Meiran's reluctant betrothed, snatched the note out of her hands as he made his way to the Ravenclaw table, "Getting love letters from Yui now?" he asked.

"Hardly!" she laughed, "Read it, go on!"

Wufei looked down his nose at the note, before he too began nearly howling with laughter, "Oh, Yui, good luck!"

Hiiro made a half hearted grab for the note, but it was snatched up by Wufei's cousin Cho, who glanced at and began giggling. The note was pulled from her hands by one of the Weasley twins, who frowned at it, turned it around several times, and then handed it to his brother upside down, "What do you make of it George?"

George examined the note with exaggerated care. "Well, it's clear as day to me," he said., "It says: Spiky man in the house by the un-strung clothes line will have an encounter with a woman in a large hat. Possibly Longbottom's Nan."

By now every student in the area was laughing at him, even if they didn't know exactly why the two characters drawn in red over his carefully worded poem/request were so disappointing. Hiiro was fuming as he finally grabbed the paper back from the laughing twins. The fact that Chang and the other Chinese students _could_ read Jei's answer didn't improve matters either. The truth about the note would be all over the school by lunch time, and he'd _still_ have to go to Divination next week. It wasn't fair at all.

Having completely lost his appetite for the rest of his breakfast he stormed out of the hall and stomped down the stairs to the dungeons. Not even the Slytherins hung out down there in the cold, and so what if he was a few minutes early to potions? It beat being stuck upstairs where the Weasley twins were undoubtedly getting the full story about the note from Long. He wondered if they'd put it into a song, or just start giving him dungbombs whenever they saw him.

He'd spent over an hour carefully composing the poem, observing all of the rules about meter, length, calligraphy and seasonal words, and Jei's only answer to his request to drop Divination had been the rather crudely scrawled characters for "Tough shit". It was frustrating and humiliating in the extreme, and it was only Wednesday.

~*~*~*~*

Duo was slinking along the corridors of the dungeons, avoiding going to breakfast. It was his first day back since the incident in Care of Magical Creatures, and he was rather hoping to avoid running into Trowa a bit longer if it was at all humanly possible. Sure, he'd have to see the guy in potions, but hopefully Snape would make him sit with the Gryffindors or something. Surely Snape didn't want members of his house poisoning each other in his own classroom. _On second thought_, Duo decided, _given the kind of stuff we work with in there, maybe he _does. He was contemplating his imminent demise in a horrible potions accident thoroughly enough that when he rounded the corner he literally ran into some one. He wasn't moving fast enough to knock them over, but their foreheads cracked pretty hard.

"Uff!"

"K'so-"

"Hiiro!" He said, looking up to see his friend from Gryffindor rubbing absently at his forehead and scowling at him from under his dark eyebrows.

"Duo? Why aren't you breakfast?"

Duo blinked at him, "Because I don't taste like porridge? How hard did you hit your head anyway?"

Hiiro frowned again, "Sorry, it's hard adjustment. Why are you not at breakfast?"

"Ah, that's better," Duo nodded, but when Hiiro just stared at him, waiting for an answer he finally caved, "Because I'm sort of in a bit of slight difficulty with Trowa Barton, if you must know."

"What?"

"He's just a little, teensy bit pissed about the whole hippogriff thing. I don't want to talk about it."

"You mean the trouble in Care of Magic Creature where you-"

"I _said_ I don't want to talk about it!" Duo snapped. "Besides. What are _you_ doing down here?"

Wisely, Hiiro decided to leave this topic alone for the moment and let Duo change the subject, "I am avoiding Great Hall and Weaslys."

"Not that I can't think of a million reasons off hand," Duo said, "but can I ask what aspect of their charming personality has sent you rushing down here?"

Hiiro was quiet for a long time, trying to decided what to tell Duo. At last he held out the rather crumpled note by way of explanation. Duo took the piece of paper, turned it around a few times, and then checked the back for any extra markings. "They gave you a headache with some kind of cryptic riddle paper?"

It was only the intense training of the summer that kept Hiiro from rolling his eyes. "No Duo, they make fun of what's on paper."

The braided student hand the paper back, shrugging, "Looks like a take out menu that some jerk wrote all over. What is it?"

It was hard to stay insulted in the face of Duo's honest assessment. Of course the Weasly twins hadn't had any clue what they were looking at. "Is nothing really. But they will make it out to be much something."

"Then put honey and gnats in their trunks. No magic, so it's hard to trace, and it's and _really _freakin' annoying. … Unless you share a dormitory or something with them. Because then it would suck for you too."

"I don't think that is good idea," Hiiro said, "but I thank you for sentiment, Duo-kun."

Duo leaned back against the wall of the corridor, his arms folded and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "Well, then give me a minute and I'll come up with something better. Those two are getting way too cocky if you ask me." Then his nose scrunched up and his eyes crossed slightly before he gave Hiiro a hard look, "Wait a second. Who are you calling a raccoon?"

Hiiro's train of thought, which up until then had been focused on not laughing at how funny Duo looked when a thought struck him, was completely derailed by the question. "Ra-kun?" He asked, "I don't know this word. What is ra-kun?"

"Not Rah-koon, that sounds like an Egyptian god or something. Rac-coon," Duo waived his arms about for a moment. "It's an animal. You know? Coonskin cap, raccoon? That sort of thing"

Hiiro just continued to look slightly baffled behind his typical aloof expression.

Duo moved away from the wall, "Okay, so it's an animal. With markings, like a mask?" he made rings with his forefingers and thumbs and held them over his eyes. "And dark paws, like gloves," he mimed putting on gloves, "and a big bushy tail." He held his braid at the small of his back and waggled the tip around with one hand, while he tried to indicate how large the tail would be with the other.

The Japanese boy watched this odd dance in utter confusion for a few minutes before he nodded, "You mean _tanuki_?"

"Tan-what-y?"

"Ta-nu-ki," he spelled the word out, "it is creature like you describe. With stripes tail. A bit troublesome, like you."

Duo laughed, "Yeah, exactly! Tanuki. One of those." Then he grew more serious, "So why did you call me a tanuki then?"

Before Hiiro could try to explain, or even understand the question, the adjoining corridor was filled with the sounds of about thirty students trundling from breakfast to their first Potions lesson of the new school year. They hurried after the passing throng, neither of them wanting to be assigned detention on the very first day. They only barely settled at the last two seats before the bell rang.

"Cutting it rather fine, are we Yui?" Snape said, "Perhaps you and Mr. Maxwell had better stay after class and explain why, instead of going to breakfast, you encouraged Mr. Maxwell to lurk in dank hallways when he has only just been released from the infirmary after that regrettable hippogriff incident. You'll note Mr. Malfoy displayed more sense. Now open your books to page seventeen."

"But Professor-" Duo began.

"Page seventeen, Mr. Maxwell. Don't make me repeat myself."

"Yeah, yeah" Duo muttered as he dug out his book, "it's bad for my health."

-_-_-_-

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Dealing with the Devil 2/?**  
Author: **Grevola  
**Rating:** PG  
**Notes:** Don't own GW or HP. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc.

-_-_-_-

Lunchtime on Friday found Duo cornered in an abandoned classroom and hoping he would live to see the weekend. It had not been a good week.

First there was the fiasco in Care of Magical Creatures with the freaky, smelly turkey-horses, and that was hardly his fault. _He _hadn't wanted to go talk to the damn hippogriff, _he_ had wanted to stay safely outside the padlock, or maybe even in Hagrid's hut, or better yet back in the castle in the dungeons. But no, Trowa wanted to go pet "The pretty fluffy horsey-kins", so of course Quatre was going too. And if Quatre decided it was cool, Draco wouldn't be more than a step behind. And there was no way Duo was going to get caught alone with Zabini if he could help it, so he really hadn't had a choice about approaching the damn creatures. And when the bloody thing attacked him, he certainly hadn't expected Draco to distract the hippogriff and get his arm cut up.

As if all that weren't bad enough, he'd had to spend several _days_ cooped up in the hospital wing with Draco, just because the snotty blond hadn't wanted to go right back to lessons. And of course, after the second time some poor first year delivered their lessons to their sick bed, Draco decided the whole thing wasn't just Duo's fault but had some how become his idea as well. Duo would have been happy with an extra larger plaster and a note out of the afternoon Charms lesson. But no, when Lucious Malfoy had insisted Draco take it easy for a full week, he'd gotten the treatment too because "Hippogriffs leave such nasty, easily infected wounds, and they are only small boys." Duo had a hunch that Mr. Malfoy _knew_ he would hate being laid up much more than going to class, and took extra delight in arranging the whole thing because of it.

Then there had been Defense Against the Dark Arts on Friday morning. Duo was still pretty sure that one wasn't his fault. No, that screw up belonged entirely to shabby Professor Lupin. First he'd held the class in some out of the way storage closet barely big enough to fit everyone. Then he'd thought it would be a _brilliant_ idea to put everyone's worst fear on display for the judgement of their peers. Maybe laughing at the most terrifying thing you can think of was how Gryffindors got their jollies, but Slytherin house tended to look on fear as a sign of weakness. And having your biggest weakness paraded in front of a bunch of self-interested, back-stabbing, power-mongering thirteen year olds is not what anyone wants to do first thing in the morning.

There were only two people in the entire class who hadn't seemed upset by the whole thing. Quatre Winner, because _his_ boggart was a tall, brown haired man yelling in Arabic, so no one knew what that was all about, and Blaise Zabini because _he _could manage a derisive laugh at anything. Everyone else had left the class in a horrible mood, and eyeing each other with deep suspicion, knowing that what their boggarts revealed would be used against them by their house mates at the first suitable opportunity. And of course, Trowa had been asked to stay behind after class and this was some how Duo's fault, never mind Professor Lupin had wanted the braided boy to hang back as well.

So, after one of the worst lessons of his life, Duo got to spend a mildly terrifying ten minutes being silently menaced by Trowa while they waited for their Defense teacher to arrive. Of course he'd asked them to stay back, and then remembered he had to go rush off to another room to get something, or do something immediately. Duo had been slouched in a seat in the classroom long enough for his butt to go numb before the door at the far end of the room finally opened. But it wasn't Professor Lupin who stepped into the room. It was Hiiro Yui. The messy haired Gryffindor indicated that Trowa should go on through the way he came to talk to their teacher. Apparently they were doing some sort of one on one interview. Or something. Duo wondered if this was going to wind up being his fault too.

Hiiro completely ignored Duo until Trowa had shut the door behind himself. Then the Japanese student settled in a seat at Duo's side.

"You are here to see Professor Lupin?" He asked.

Duo nodded, "Yeah. Is that what you were doing?"

Hiiro nodded, "Yes. He wanted to speak with me about my boggart. It caused some disruption- I believe you would have enjoyed the chaos."

"Huh, no way," Duo said, "we had our boggart lesson this morning. It was awful."

"I did not think you would be easily scared," Hiiro frowned, "Not even the Bloody Baron frightens you much."

"Yeah, well. He's not my ghost, is he?" Duo slouched down further in his chair with his arms crossed and his expression dark. "How did your boggart cause trouble? Did it attack the other students, or try to start a riot?"

"It was not so violent," Hiiro said. A long silence stretched between them as Hiiro waited, first for Duo to make some kind of joke, and then for Duo to say anything at all. At last he gave up, realizing his friend's expression had only become darker. "Your boggart did not cause a riot?"

"Damn near," he muttered.

"Duo?" Concern colored Hiiro's voice. But before Duo answered, the door at the far end of the class room slammed open and Trowa stormed past them, his back straight and his face scowling.

Lupin was standing in the doorway, watching him leave, looking more worn out and resigned than usual. "Not my brightest idea," he mused before addressing the two boys in the room, "I see you're still here Hiiro. Do you mind if I borrow Duo for a moment? I'm sure you can appreciate this is a somewhat personal topic." He frowned again, "Unless, of course, you'd like him to be there Duo?"

Duo just shrugged, "Yeah sure, whatever. He can stay. What's all this about, prof?"

Lupin pulled a chair from one of the desks in the row ahead of the boys, and settled in it backwards, "As I'm sure you've guessed, I wanted to speak with you a bit about your boggart Duo."

"It wasn't my fault."

Lupin shook his head, "Of course not. None of us can control what a boggart turns into. And you did handle the incident rather well. But I'm afraid that, between your reaction to the boggart and the dementor, I'm forced to draw some difficult conclusions about you, and your, er, childhood."

"You know what they say about people who assume," Duo snapped. Hiiro was certain that Professor Lupin would soon lose patience with his friend, much as most teachers quickly did. But instead the rather worn looking man just nodded.

"Indeed I do. Which is why I wanted to speak with you. There are a handful of students who have asked me to work with them on particular problems that have cropped up this year. Either learning to summon a patronus and banish a dementor, or learning alternative ways of dealing with boggarts. I have already spoken about this with Hiiro, and I wanted to extend the same offer to you."

Duo snorted and looked away, "So what, my boggart causes a panic and now I have to take remedial Defense Against the Dark Arts? Snape's already got me on extra Potions!"

"Hardly," Lupin hurried to stop Duo's building rant. "Some of the professors think I am very foolish to offer you these lessons. However, I thought you might like a chance to take control of situations like those with the boggart or the dementors. The choice take me up on the offer is entirely up to you."

Duo frowned at him again, "What about you, Hiiro, you takin' extra lessons with Professor Loopy?"

Hiiro frowned at his friend's rudeness. "I had not decided," he said at last.

"You do not need make a choice right now," Professor Lupin said, standing up, "the offer is open to you as long as I am a teacher here. And my door is always open for you, Duo, even if you just wish to talk."

Duo was quietly sullen for a bit longer, and eventually the teacher collected his battered briefcase and began to head out of the classroom. Just as he reached the doorway, Duo called after him, "Hey Prof?"  
"Yes Duo?"

"You can teach me to stick it to those dementors?"

"I can show you the technique, it would be up to you to master it."

Duo nodded, "Okay. Teach me that."

Professor Lupin nodded, "Very well. Then meet me in my office Thursday evening after dinner. You may, of course, bring your friend." And then the teacher nodded to both students and took his leave.

Hiiro felt somewhat uncomfortable, having played spectator to what should have been a private conversation for reasons he didn't understand. The room was quiet for a long minute after Lupin left, and then Duo stood up and turned away from Hiiro. He walked to the front of the room and began drawing abstract shapes on the chalk board.

"Know what my boggart was?" He asked, but he didn't wait for Hiiro to answer, "When the boggart jumped out at me the whole room went black. Totally, blindingly black. And quiet. So quiet you could only hear yourself breathe. Then people tried to move around and started crashing into things. But you couldn't see what was going on, you couldn't hear their voices... Took it a while for someone to get the boggart's attention, but Trowa finally stumbled in front of it. By then everyone was pretty much panicking. And then _his _boggart..." Duo shuddered, "He turned it into a circus clown, but of course that's Pansey Perkinson's worst fear, so then she was _really_ screaming..." He made a particularly vicious gesture, and the chalk screeched and broke in his hand. "And some how that's all my fault. Zabini's twisted ankle, Pansey's mascara, Trowa's boggart nearly killing us all... That's some how _my_ _fault_! As if I walked up to Loony Lupin and said 'Hey, know what'd be wicked? If we gave the whole house a huge panic attack, whadda ya say?'"

Hiiro wasn't sure what to say. He went and stood by Duo, toying with his own piece of chalk. Absently he began drawing five-pointed summoning diagrams on the board. "My boggart was Harry Potter."  
"Potter?!" Duo dropped his chalk, "What's so scary about _Potter_? Did he threaten to make you wear those horrible glasses of his or something?"

"He was dead. It was a surprise for me, but the students became quite upset. Professor Lupin even more than the students, I think." He drew the elemental signs at the points of the star.

Duo was staring at Hiiro open mouthed and wide eyed."You're biggest fear is Harry "I'm special because I didn't kick it" Potter _dead_?! Talk about irrational!"

"Shut up," Hiiro snapped, "Harry is special. Important!"

Duo stared at Hiiro for a few moments before a light seemed to go on in his eyes. Then he slapped Hiiro on the shoulder and began to laugh so hard he almost couldn't stand upright, "You've got a crush on him, haven't you?" he howled, "You _fancy_ Harry Potter!"

"I do not!" Hiiro snapped, but it was no use.

Duo had leaned against the chalk board to hold himself up, and was slowly sliding down, giggling, "Hiiro Yui _fancies_ Harry Potter! It's too much!"

And it was too much, because Duo's laughter was enough to attract the attention of Peeves the poltergeist. He floated into the class room through one door and then out the other, ignoring Hiiro's protests that Duo had completely misinterpreted what he was saying. Instead, Peeves picked up on Duo's cry and chanted "Harry's Hiiro's hero! Harry's Hiiro's crush! Harry's Hiiro's hero! Hiiro is in love!" all down the halls of the school.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Dealing With the Devil [3/?]  
**Author:** Grevola**  
Rating: **PG 13  
**Notes:** Don't own HP or GW. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc. Follows "Anything You Can Do". Hiiro realizes he's in need of a sneaky individual with flexible morals. Too bad Duo doesn't do anything for free. Some bad language in this part.

-_-_-_-

Relena Darlian hauled her books back up the steps to the Gryffindor tower, mentally cursing Professor Vector's love of essays. The idea of turning in essay work for Arithmancy seemed so counter intuitive! She was perfectly capable of preforming the calculations and spellwork the subject required, why did she have to spend hours writing up _how_ she did it? But Hermione Granger had to raise her hand three minutes before the bell and ask a _stupid_ question and now they had to write a ten inch essay on the use of non-regular polygons as focal points in protective magics. _Not counting_ the three mandatory diagrams. Once again Relena looked over her schedule- she was taking all the normal classes, and three electives. Surely she didn't need _all _three. And surely Hermoine didn't need to be in every single one either. Especially Muggle Studies. The sort of stupid, off topic, useless know-it-all remarks she made... it was enough to make Relena want to hit someone.

Her mood and headache were not improved when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open to reveal Dean and Seamus trying to out shout each other as they cornered Percy Weasley about something. A couple of second year girls were hovering on the edges of the argument, twittering to themselves, and a group of fifth years brushed past her and out the portrait hole, looking for a quieter place to study. One of the boys jostled her as he hurried past, making her drop her stack of books. Sighing, the blond third year just rubbed her forehead and began gathering her things. She wondered if it counted as eavesdropping if the conversation she was overhearing was being shouted right in front of her face.

"... right there in the same room!"

"-in the dressing room-"

"Please, let's be-" But Percy was cut off almost before he started.

"Don't want him looking-"

"When me mam finds out-"

"That's enough!" She finally shouted, slamming the last book on the stack. The common room went completely silent, and both Dean and Seamus stared at her, their eyes gone huge. "What on Earth has you all so worked up?"

"Don't you _know_?" Seamus said, "Hiiro Yui is queer!"

"And where," her voice dripped ice, "did you hear _that_?"

"Well, Peeves was singin' it..." Dean mumbled.

Relena and Percy exchanged long-suffering looks. The Prefect awkwardly patted Dean on the shoulder, "Come now, Peeves was calling Professor Lupin a werewolf all day yesterday, and you didn't believe that, did you?"

"Well, no..." Now both the boys stared absently around the room, clearly embarrassed.

"Then that's settled," Relena said, "maybe next time you'll think a rumor through before you make fools of yourselves." With that, she brushed past the group and up the stairs to the girl's dorms, effectively breaking up the small meeting as she went. _Really_, she thought to her self, _how could you even tell if Hiiro _were_ queer? He never seems to give anyone a second glance._

But even if Hiiro hadn't started noticing that the students around him were growing up, they had certainly started watching him. That afternoon at lunch, she listened as Meiran explained that it wasn't strange that Hiiro was attached to other boys, rather "I can't believe he'd be interested in anyone as useless as Harry. I mean, Oliver Wood? Sure! There's a nice strong guy you could hope to learn something from. But Harry's just so... Meh!" The Chinese girl waved her hands to indicate her lack of words.

"Do guys where you come from _really_ date old guys, and like, their teachers and stuff?" Lavender Brown asked. She was trying to look horrified, but she sounded positively eager.

Meiran shrugged, "Not so much any more, but it used to be super common between apprentices and teachers. Reminds me," She turned in her seat and shouted something across the Great Hall in Chinese. There was a crash, and a spluttering, and then some loud and obviously rude remarks from Wufei Chang in response. Shortly professor Flitwick hurried over to calm his student down.

Meiran just giggled and turned back in her seat, "I should have known he'd never slept with Master Oh- he's wound way too tight."

The other Gryffindor girls tried to hide their giggles and look suitably appalled, but they weren't terribly convincing. Relena joined in, but she had been given a classical education before she started at Hogwarts, and some of the stories of the Greeks and their students suddenly seemed to make a lot more sense. She glanced down the table to Hiiro who was poking his food rather harshly with his fork and glaring sullenly at those around him. In fact, the only person he _didn't _seem to be glowering at was Harry himself, who was chatting rather obliviously with Hermione and Ron. Relena was just wondering if he'd even heard the rumor of Hiiro's supposed infatuation when the Weasley twins passed by her on their way to that end of the table.

"-given him half an hour already," Fred said as he walked by.

"He's had as much food as he's going to," George replied, "fair's fair."

And then they were standing one behind Harry and the other behind Hiiro. "So Ron, has he asked you to be the best man yet?" Fred asked.

"What are you going on about now?" Ron asked, looking warily between his siblings.

"Well we figured Yuy was the sort to do things properly," George said as he put one hand on Hiiro's shoulder, "So has he offered to make an honest man of you yet Harry, or does he expect you to make the first move?"

"What are you going on-" Ron began, but Fred smacked him on the back of the head.

"Oh come off it Ron! You're not going to tell me you've left defending Harry's honor up to _us_ are you?"

"Seriously Harry, maybe you'd better make us your best man, or nothing will get done right."

"What are you talking about?" Harry finally asked looking from one twin to the other, and completely missing the growing expression of horrified embarrassment on Hirro's face.

"What, you mean-"

"-you were completely-"

"and utterly-"

"unaware that this-" George shook Hiiro's shoulder hard for emphasis, "young man"

"-is madly in love with you?"

"What?!" Harry dropped his glass, pumpkin juice slowly staining the table cloth. Not even Hermione Granger was distracted enough from the unfolding scene to siphon it up with her wand.

"Just think about it!" Fred said.

"The way he follows you around," George continued.

"He's always looking at you,"

"Casting those funny little spells,"

"Lurking around the pitch during practice,"

"Taking all your same classes,"

"Stalking you in other words."

Harry's eyes grew wide and his face paled as he looked over at Hiiro, "You-"

"He would hate to see Harry hurt!" Relena finally snapped, "Which doesn't mean he is, or is not, in love with him. And I think this has gone quite far enough. Whether or not Hiiro has a crush on Harry is between them and none of your business. Now both of you get out of here before I find a Prefect."

"My my Relena," Fred said, "didn't know you were such a stickler about rules."

"Yeah," George's hand tightened on Hiiro's shoulder until the knuckles were white, "Besides, it's only fair that we try and protect our friends."

"Make sure they're not getting mixed up with creeps and weirdos."

"Oh give it a rest!" Meiran shouted, "Hiiro's harmless."

"You're not helping!" Relena snapped at her friend, "Hiiro has been nothing but a kind and helpful student, and we've all known him for years. I hardly think-"

But she was cut off by the sound of a bench scraping hard against the stone floor. Hiiro stood up and with what looked like a casual shrug pulled his shoulder out of George's grasp. "Relena," he said, "I can fight my own battles. But I only fight those worthy of my choosing." And with that he turned and walked from the hall with a great deal more dignity than most thirteen-year-olds ever hope to muster.

There was an awkward silence at the Gryffindor table until he was out of sight through the doors to the main hall. The the whole table seemed to erupt with chattering voices.

"Oh Hiiro," Relena sighed to herself as he left. It was probably for the best that he'd managed to escape from the bullying, but having her efforts to help thrown back in her face like that stung unreasonably.

Further up the table a couple of sixth years were debating whether the bagpiper in the Weird Sisters was actually gay, and some students at the Ravenclaw table behind them were trying to think of all the famous gay wizards they'd ever heard of. Down the table, the twins had moved on to talk Quidtich with a second year who was on the reserve team, and Ginny Weasley had taken Fred's place behind Harry and Ron. "You don't like Hiiro back, do you Harry?" She asked, "You aren't gay are you?" Relena noticed the other girl looked slightly ill at the very thought.

"What? No!" Harry said, "I just, I mean, no. Of course not. I'm not a fag, thanks, I think I've got enough troubles with out that."

"Right on, Harry!" Ron said.

Hermione rolled her eyes at all of them, "Really, would it have mattered to you that much Ron if Harry _were_ queer? You wouldn't just stop being friends with him would you?"

Now it was Ron's turn to look green under his freckles, "Well, er, no, I mean, he's my best mate, but well. It'd be different."

"How exactly?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I mean..." Relena watched the wheels spin behind Ron's eyes, and she just knew he was about to dig himself a deeper hole, "What I mean is, what if he got a crush on me? I mean, it'd tear us all apart, one of us got a crush on one of the others."

"I see." Hermione said, and she was suddenly back in full ice princess mode, "Well. Bully for you. Now if you excuse me, I've got a Muggle studies lesson to get to."

And as that seemed to be the end of the matter, Relena reluctantly gathered together her own books and made her own way out of the hall and toward Professor Burbage's classroom. As the staircase she was on swung into a new position, she noticed a couple of figures tucked into the corner that had been underneath the steps a moment before. One was Hiiro, his eyes slightly reddened, and his face set in grim determination. With him was Duo Maxwell, a Slytherin boy she knew very little about except that he always seemed to be in trouble, even with Snape. And right now his animated face seemed to be shifting between being furious and frightened. But she saw him finally put an arm around Hiiro's shoulders and lean in until their heads were nearly touching as the stairway finished it's shifting and settled down. The image gave her something to think about all through her next lesson, so she didn't even notice when Hermione got them extra homework again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: **Dealing With the Devil [4/?]  
**Author:** Grevola**  
Rating: **PG 13  
**Notes:** Don't own HP or GW. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc. Follows "Anything You Can Do". Hiiro realizes he's in need of a sneaky individual with flexible morals. Too bad Duo doesn't do anything for free.

-_-_-_-

Hiiro clung to six years of intensive training in posture and comportment in order to extract himself from George's grip, and get himself away from the Great Hall. If his arms were folded neatly in his sleeves, then they weren't strangling someone, or making the curse gestures he'd had beaten into him over the summer. Once he made it into the hall he hurried toward the stairs to the basement. Just past them was a passage that would allow him to cut across the length of the school so he wouldn't have to walk to Divination with the rest of his class. He passed the dark archway to the basement just as some one was entering the hall. He didn't even look, when the other person bumped into him hard enough to jerk his hand out of his sleeve. He barely registered that it was Duo who had bumped into him before he lashed out and landed a hard punch to Duo's ribs. Duo deserved it for starting the rumor in the first place.

No sooner had the blow connected than he found himself with a face full of some kind of dust that made his eyes water and his breathing difficult. "Damnit," he heard Duo curse, "I was saving that. Come on, let's get you cleaned up." And then Hiiro felt a firm hand trying to guide him across the hall.

Still angry, and even more embarrassed, Hiiro tried to jerk himself out of Duo's grasp so he could make an escape, but the other student had a surprisingly strong grip for someone so skinny.

"Shit Hiiro, what's your problem?" Duo said.

Hiiro opened his mouth to explain that Duo was the cause, however indirectly, of the current problem, but instead he got a face full of some mint scented water that had apparently been dumped over his head. "My problem?" he finally managed to sputter.

"Yeah _your_ problem," Duo growled as he wiped Hiiro's face off roughly with his sleeve, "I had plans for that Hungarian crying powder you know. Now all I've got is a bruise. What the hell is wrong with you today?"

"It's all your fault."

Hiiro's eyes had cleared enough to see that Duo was glaring at him. "My fault? You're the one stalking down the hall like you're about to kill some, and then you don't just bump into me, you go and punch me!"

"It is because of you that the school now believes I... _like_" he nearly spit the word, "Harry Potter."

"So you've been stomping around angry at me all _day_ just because I laughed at you last night?"

"You are not the only-" Abruptly Hiiro clammed up and turned away from Duo, "Never mind. You're an idiot and the damage is done. I will have to find my own way around it."

Duo put an arm around Hiiro's shoulders and turned the other teen back toward him. "What happened Hiiro?"

"I..." Hiiro realized that Duo had some how trapped him in a corner that was normally under one of the stairways, and the only way he was going to be leaving was through his friend.

"Tell me who it was," Duo said, "I'll make their lives a living hell."

And the way the young Slytherin said that made Hiiro shudder. As angry and embarrassed as the Weasley twins had made him, he wouldn't wish Duo on them when he was like this. Last time, Duo had pulled a prank that landed a fourth year Slytherin in the hospital wing for a week. "It doesn't matter," he said at last, but the devil in

Duo's eye didn't fade away, "They aren't worth the trouble."

"You said this was my fault," Duo said, "and I can guess who it was anyway. Ron Weasley isn't bright enough to come up with anything that'd ruffle your feathers, but his brothers..."

Hiiro knew that Duo had a long standing rivalry with the Weasley twins, both sides striving to be the biggest pranksters and troublemakers in the school. And he also suspected that as the rivalry progressed it was growing to be less prank and more war. Then he started thinking about the powder he'd been hit him with. As fast as that had happened, Duo must have been carrying it loose in his hand, and something like that done right in the Dining Hall could only lead to serious trouble for the long haired boy. It was then that it clicked in Hiiro's mind exactly _why_ Duo was in Slytherin. It was quite likely that the other boy had no limits at all when it came to achieving a goal.

"Yes," he said at last, "it is your fault and so you must do something for me to make it up."

"Yes?" Duo's grin was dangerous.

"There is a book I need from the library. You will steal it, or help me to steal it."

"What?!" Duo spluttered, "You get run out of the dining hall two days in a row, and instead of revenge you want a _book_?"

"Yes Duo, I want a book, because it is more useful than petty revenge."

"What's this book about?" The Slytherin asked, now suspicious.

"It is-" but Hiiro paused wondering if he should tell the other students. But if he wanted his help to get at the tome, and it was a proper tome more than a mere book, he would have to at least give him the title. "It will show me a spell I want to learn. The book is in the restricted section of the library."

"You know what it looks like?" Duo asked.

"It is bound in leather from a feathered serpent," he said, "and wears a lock that looks like bone."

"And this is worth more to you than having the Weasley twins put in their place, and the rumors about you and Potter squashed?"

Hiiro was tempted. It would be nice to go back to living in a school where he wasn't stared at everywhere he went. And where the boy he had been sent to protect wouldn't avoid him like he carried plague. But those were petty, thirteen year old wants. Becoming an animagus was a much deeper desire than that, and up until now he'd had no way of getting at that book. If he asked Duo as a favor, he'd be repaying that request for a very long time to come. But if Duo owed him the debt first...

"Yes Duo. Please let the others go. The rumors will pass when everyone becomes more interested in something else."  
Duo scratched his nose, considering, and then grinned, "Okay, you got yourself a deal. Let's meet at the library after our potions detention."

"Agreed."

And before they could make more plans, the warning bell for the next class sounded, and Hiiro had to rush to make it up to the stuffy tower where he would have to sit through Divination. It was boring, and uncomfortable sitting in the hot stuffy room. And it was embarrassing having Professor Trelawny read his palm and predict that he was doomed to failure in his love life. But he managed to get through by trying to imagine what his animagus for would be like. It was actually a much better use of his brain power, he decided, than paying attention to soggy leaves and other people's chapped palms.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: **Dealing With the Devil [5/?]  
**Author:** Grevola**  
Rating: **PG 13  
**Notes:** Don't own HP or GW. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc. Follows "Anything You Can Do". Hiiro realizes he's in need of a sneaky individual with flexible morals. Too bad nothing goes according to plan.

-_-_-_-

Duo couldn't believe he'd gotten caught. He'd avoided most of the common mistakes that amateur thieves, or at least people who watch too many movies make. Instead of waiting until the dead of night and breaking in, he'd cased the library for a couple of weeks to determine when the busiest days were. That had driven Hiiro nuts, as the teasing, and in some cases outright hostility, continued unabated. Even some of the teachers seemed to be getting into it. Hagrid was everything short of physically harassing the Japanese student, and Duo heard Profesor McGonagall was ignoring the Japanese student completely.

Once Duo determined the best day to strike, he'd waited until someone assigned a really nasty essay project to the fifth years. Right on cue Professor Lupin had given the O.W.L. students a nasty assignment that involved looking up historical approaches to dealing with certain creatures or attacks. As soon as he'd heard about it, he'd warned the fifth year Slyltherins, who had promptly checked out every relevant book before anyone else could get their foot in the Library. When he'd arrived in the library after his last class that day he'd been pleased to see so many fifth year students panicking and badgering Madame Pince for help. They had her pinned down by her desk, and the books they needed were from the history section, clear across the library from where he was headed.

On top of all this, he'd gotten a good description of the book from Hiiro, and on one particularly fortunate afternoon he'd located it by sight on the shelf. Some of the books in the restricted section would send up howls or alarms if they were opened without the proper precautions. Which was why Duo wasn't going to open the book, he was just going to slip it into the hidden pocket in his bag, and then walk out. Getting the book looked like it was just going to be a matter of stepping over the velvet rope in front of the restricted section, grabbing it, and then hopping into the mass of students milling around the library before he escaped. That was, of course, until about two seconds after he'd grabbed the book, when he heard the clink of the velvet rope being opened to let people through.

"Thank you for letting me check out this book Professor, I understand it's in a very delicate condition." He vaguely recognized the voice as belonging to the stuck up Ravenclaw Wufei Chang. Apparently the jerk had decided today would be a _great_ day to suck up to some professor, and now they were in the restricted section.

"It's no trouble at all Wufei. It's quite natural to be curious about your magical heritage, and I have heard from all your teachers that you are a very meticulous student when it comes to the care of books," that could only be Professor Lupin. "Frankly, I'm quite interested to hear what you find out about guardian ancestors, I'm afraid I haven't the background to read this particular work."

_Just my luck_, Duo thought, _Lupin somehow doesn't get mobbed by his fanclub, and now he's headed over here. I _really_ hope they don't come down this aisle._

The two sets of footsteps wandered down the aisle next to where Duo was crouching and trying to be still. He could just barely make out movement and Professor Lupin's shabby brown robes on the other side of the bookcase. He hoped that, because he was being still and dressed darkly, and because they definitely weren't _looking _for some one, that they wouldn't notice him and just get the book and leave. He managed to hold still while they selected the book, Chang gushed at Lupin some more- _didn't Meiran say that Chinese guys crush on their teachers or something?_ he thought- and finally Lupin sent the other student on his way, "You'd better go get that checked out, it looks like there's quite a line forming to speak with Madam Pince."

"Oh, of course," Wufei said, "They must have all started looking in the Defence section, like you suggested."

Finally there was the sound of footsteps wandering away, and no further movement on the other side of the bookcase. Feeling safer, Duo slowly straightened up out of his half crouch, when he heard Professor Lupin speak from right on the other side of the shelf, "You might as well come over here," he said, "I know you've been lurking, Mr. Maxwell."

Reluctantly, Duo slunk out of his hiding place and glared at Professor Lupin, daring him to find an evening when he didn't already have some detention. Lupin's eyebrow raised when he saw what book was in Duo's hand. "I think it might be time for you to come by my office and have another little chat," the professor said.

Duo winced and followed Professor Lupin from the library. He was surprised when the professor stopped briefly to let Madam Pince know he was taking the book with him. Then they were wandering down the hall toward Professor Lupin's office by the Defence Against the Dark Arts room. Quite suddenly Hiiro rounded a corner, nearly knocking into the teacher. He didn't look surprised even as his eyes quickly passed over Duo's slouch, Lupin's exasperated expression, and the book in the professor's hand.

Hiiro had actually been on his way to find Duo and warn him that, according to his readings, that evening would be a spectacularly bad choice for trying to steal the book. Hiiro had been scrying to try and find an auspicious time ever since he'd gotten Duo to agree to helping him. He'd thought his friend was waiting for him to give the go ahead, but when he caught sight of the teacher with Duo he realized that he had misjudged. Not only had Duo been operating on his own time table, he'd been willing to dare trying to steal the book during one of the busiest hours in the day. If Duo hadn't looked so convincingly frustrated, Hiiro would have guessed he got himself caught on purpose just to get out of the agreement. Even so, it wouldn't be right to let Duo take all the punishment when Hiiro had effectively blackmailed him into breaking the rules.

"Sir," he said quickly to Professor Lupin, "Duo was getting that book for me."

The teacher glanced from the expression on one boy's face, and then the other, "Alright, you'd better come along as well."

A few minutes later both boys were settled in hard chairs while he had set himself down behind his desk, the confiscated book on the table in front of him. "So you, Hiiro, half bullied Duo into getting this book for you. While _you_ Duo spent a week and a half planning how to steal the book form the library. And incidentally managed to cause a panic among most of the fifth year class."

"Yes sir," the boys chorused.

"I think I can guess why Duo decided this would be a fun game. But Hiiro, why didn't you simply asked a teacher to let you borrow the book?"  
Hiiro took a long time to reply, but finally he said "I didn't think I would be allowed."

Lupin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking like he was fighting off a headache. Combined with his typical exhausted pallor, he looked more defeated than angry. "I see. Duo, would you please wait in the hall? I think I need to speak with Hiiro privately for a moment."

Duo gave his friend a questioning look, but headed into the hall anyway. Once the door had closed softly behind him, Hiiro noticed how large and quiet the office suddenly seemed. The distance between his chair and the desk seemed to stretch, and he fought down the urge to shift in his seat.

Professor Lupin took a deep breath, and then folded his hands over the book, "I believe I owe you an apology."

The foreign student frowned, and again consciously forced himself to sit still. He had never had a punishment begin like that before.

When it was clear that Hiiro had nothing to say, Lupin continued, "Hiiro, I don't want you to think that I or the other teachers are unaware of the bullying you've been exposed to these past few weeks. And I'm afraid it is my fault both that you have been subjected to the fear and bigotry of your peers, and that so little has been done to stop it. As I'm sure you've found, not all of the faculty are entirely comfortable with their students' sexualities, real or perceived. Many of the teachers, and I include myself in this, are also unreasonably protective of Harry. I think perhaps some teachers have been taking out their inability to protect Harry from Sirius black on you."

"You are concerned that the school cannot provide adequate safety?"

"No, no!" Lupin hurried to assure the boy, "But Harry is- Well, that's neither here nor there, really. We're discussing your prompting Mr. Maxwell to break school rules. Now, I won't ask if you're aware of what kind of spells are in this book, but do you know why it was in the restricted section?"

"It describes advanced, and restricted transformation magic," Hiiro answered.

"And dangerous. These spells can cause permanent harm or disfigurement."

"I was not planing to try any of them. I wanted to see how they were preformed. English transfiguration ritual is very different from the Japanese tradition."

Lupin nodded, "And was Duo planning to try anything in the book?"

Hiiro shrugged, "I did not tell him what the book contained."

"I see," Lupin nodded, then he raised his voice, "Mr. Maxwell, you can come back inside please."

Duo slunk into the room, glaring darkly at both the teacher and his friend, "So, what's it going to be? Cleaning Filch's chamber pot for a week?"

"I think instead of a traditional detention it is time I began your private lessons. It is clear that neither of you are being kept sufficiently occupied by your class work. Now," he tapped a blank piece of parchment with his wand, "It seems you both have an hour free on Tuesday evenings."

"Extra lessons!" Duo jumped up, spilling the contents of his book bag across the floor, "Next I'll have extra work for Muggle Studdies, and I'm not even _in_ that class!"

Hiiro agreed, between the twice weekly detentions with Snape, and now the extra lessons with Lupin, it didn't seem like they would ever get another free minute. But the Japanese boy didn't say anything, as he'd found that complaints about having too much work usually resulted in getting even more chores assigned to you. Lupin for his part just waved off their moaning and handed them each a slip to give their heads of house, explaining their new weekly commitment.

As Duo bent to collect his spilled belongings, the professor cornered Hiiro by the door. "I did want to ask a small favor of you," he said in a voice not meant to reach Duo's ears.

"Yes?"

"If you would mind keeping an eye on Harry when you can? He is rather impulsive, and I am worried he might go looking for trouble. And since you clearly don't wish him dead, I thought maybe..."

Hiiro managed to resist rolling his eyes, "I will."

"Excellent," he patted Hiiro on the shoulder, "I knew I could count on you."

By then Duo had finished gathering his things from where they had spilled as far as under the Teacher's desk. The two boys slipped out into the hall, making their way to the stairs in silence. When they reached the point where they would normally part ways and head to their own common rooms, Duo tugged on Hiiro's sleeve, and lead him to a quiet alcove two floors below Lupin's office.

"What is it?" Hiiro asked, still disappointed by the outcome of the entire evening. It had been such a near miss.

"Just thought you'd like this," the braided boy said, and he pulled the battered orange tome from his book bag and handed it to a stunned Hiiro. "Great idea distracting Lupin like that," he grinned.

"I- but he'll know you took it."

Duo just shook his head, "Not unless he tries to open the fake one on his desk. It's just a quick illusion charm, and as soon as he opens it up he'll find my potions book. But as long as he doesn't try..."

Hiiro stared at his friend in surprise, "Duo, you're a genius! But what are you going to do about not having your potions book in class?"

"Oh, that's easy," Duo said with a shrug and a smile, "I'm just gonna borrow yours."


End file.
